


Out of the Frame

by answerstobefound



Series: a rather interesting story [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Fix-It, Gen, I don't know what I'm doing, Medical Inaccuracies, Mentions of Classic Who
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-05-03
Packaged: 2018-03-14 10:09:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3406748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/answerstobefound/pseuds/answerstobefound
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dr. Winnie Roman received a patient, Donna Temple-Noble, in a mysterious coma. She was already confused, and then Donna's grandfather invited his young friend (who wished to be called “the Doctor”) into the case, and Winnie's life began to unravel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Noble Case

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this fic through 2012/2013 and posted it on fanfiction.net in early 2014. finally, in 2015, i've come up with ideas for a sequel, and so i've decided to post this here and see how it does before i get too far into writing the sequel.
> 
> again, i wrote this a few years ago, so my writing and plotting is lacking in certain places. the sequel will be better, i promise.
> 
> (title comes from a line from "Frankie.")

“Oi, Roman!” Dr. Melissa Gray jogged over to her colleague, Winifred Roman. “Got a patient, you, me, and Davidson, but you're running it,” she handed the file to Winnie. “Thirty-nine-year-old female, Donna Temple-Noble, went to sleep one night, fell into a coma. No medical reason, she's relatively healthy.”

“New mother?” Winnie asked, flipping through the file. “Could just be exhaustion.”

“No, her only child's about three years old,” Gray replied as she pulled her hair into a ponytail, “but the woman's got connections, that's why they're sending her here. Plus, they're quite rich.”

“Oh, Temple-Noble, they won the lottery a few years ago, right?”

“Yup.”

“What kind of connections?” Winnie pushed her glasses up her nose.

“You know that reporter, Sarah Jane Smith? Also, U.N.I.T.”

“U.N.I.T.?”

“Yeah, Unified Intelligence Taskforce. Military something or other. Top secret. _Highest_ of the high on the food chain. They ask, you give, no questions asked. That sorta thing. Anyway, she's en-route. Ten minutes.”

“Right, I'll get a room set up.”

“Meet you in ambulance bay.”

 

* * *

 

Half an hour later, the comatose Donna Temple-Noble was situated in her room, along with her husband Shaun, who was holding their young daughter Evelyn, Donna's grandfather Wilfred Mott, and her mother Sylvia, who began her inquiries.

“The other doctors, they never gave us a straight answer to why they were sending Donna here,” she said.

“Your daughter's transfer was requested by a Dr. Martha Smith-Jones and a company called U.N.I.T.,” Winnie explained, noting how Mr. Mott's ears perked up. “They believe that we can find out what caused Mrs. Temple-Noble to become comatose.”

“And can you?” Sylvia asked.

“We'll do our absolute best, Mrs. Noble,” Winnie replied, flashing a quick smile. “Now, for formal introductions: I'm Dr. Winifred Roman, feel free to call me Winnie. These are my colleagues, Dr. Melissa Gray and Dr. John Davidson. We'll be working together to find out what is causing this coma. Does anyone have any questions?”

“Is there a phone I could use?” Mr. Mott asked.

“Dad, is now the time to be phoning your friends?” Sylvia asked in a tone that Winnie didn't like.

“Outside the canteen, two floors down,” Winnie replied.

Mr. Mott thanked her and left.

Gray, Davidson, and Winnie left to schedule the regular tests.

 

* * *

 

Donna Temple-Noble seemed to have nothing wrong with her. None of her scans showed anything abnormal.

“Maybe we need to go deeper,” Gray suggested. “Maybe it's just not showing up on the scans.”

“Possibly,” Winnie replied, fiddling with her old pocketwatch. “What if it's psychological?”

“Explain,” ordered Davidson.

“I'm not sure how I can,” Winnie admitted, “but maybe something was weighing so deeply on her mind that she couldn't take it and went into a coma at the first opportunity.”

“Roman, I get that you're known for coming up with things like this, but that doesn't really make sense,” Davidson said after a moment.

“The brain is the most mysterious organ,” said Gray with a shrug, “but how can we prove it, let alone fix it?”

“I'm not sure,” Winnie sighed and shoved her pocketwatch back into her pocket. “Let's sleep on it, it's nearly midnight.”

“Talk to your wonder kid about this,” Davidson suggested. “Little genius always has ideas about our cases; some turn out right.” Winnie nodded.

 

* * *

 

Winnie was home in ten minutes and tucking her young daughter into bed in sixteen.

“You know that you're not supposed to wait up for me,” Winnie said.

Hannah nodded. “I know, Mum, but I'm eight. The only thing I'm good at is being insubordinate,” she pronounced the word carefully, “and staying up late. At least I'm not in school.”

“Thank the stars that it's your summer holidays, darling, or else you'd be in trouble. And ten points to Ravenclaw for _insubordinate._ Where did you hear that word?”

“Elsie,” Hannah replied. “So, tell me about your case.”

“Thirty-nine year old woman, comatose for no reason. We're stumped.”

“There's always a reason. What d'you think?”

“I think that it could be psychological.”

“In her head?”

“Exactly. Go to sleep.” Winnie shut off the light and left Hannah's room. “We'll talk in the morning.”

“Love you Mum!” Hannah yelled.

“I love you too!”


	2. Nonsense

Winnie was the first of her team in the next morning, having spent only seven hours away from the hospital. When she arrived at her patient's room, she found Mr. Mott talking to two people she hadn't seen before. A tall, thin man in tweed and a shorter woman in jeans and a cardigan.

 

Winnie went into the room to check up on her patient and find out who the two people were. Before she even asked how Mr. Mott was doing, he introduced the man and woman to her.

 

“Dr. Roman, this is my friend Dr. Smith and his assistant Clara,” said Mr. Mott.

 

Winnie shook Dr. Smith's hand, and then Clara's.

 

“If you're here to help,” Winnie said, “I'm glad. My team and I are rather stuck.”

 

Dr. Smith opened his mouth to say something, but Clara took a quick look at him and spoke over him.

 

“Yes, we're here to help. Can you tell us what you know?”

 

* * *

 

 

Winnie brought Dr. Smith and Clara to the conference room, and introduced them to Dr. Gray and Dr. Davidson.

 

“What we know isn't much,” Winnie began. “We've run every test we have on Mrs. Temple-Noble, and they all came up empty. Nothing seems to be physically wrong with her, which lead me to believe that her comatose state was brought on by something psychological … Though I have no hard information to back that up.”

 

“Could I examine Donna myself?” Smith asked. Winnie nodded.

 

“I'll show you back to her room.”

 

* * *

 

 

Smith (who asked to just be called “the Doctor,” but no way was Winnie going to do that) asked to examine Mrs. Temple-Noble alone. Winnie stood outside the door and peaked inside. Smith was holding a cylindrical object with a green light at the end, and pointing it at Mrs. Temple-Noble; it was making a strange noise. Clara stood behind him.

 

“What d'you think is wrong with her, Doctor?” Clara asked.

 

“My guess is she managed to remember everything that I wiped from her mind,” Smith replied.

 

“And that's bad?”

 

“Yes. It means her mind is overloaded with information. Donna Noble … I should have known that she would find a way to remember it all.”

 

Winnie leaned against the outside wall again, processing what she had just heard. _Mind wipe,_ she thought. _At least I was correct about why she's in a coma, but “overloaded with information”?_ Smith, the Doctor, whoever he was, was not who he was supposed to be; Winnie was sure of it.

 

* * *

 

 

Winnie called for Smith to join her outside when he had put the cylinder object back in his jacket. She lead him to the staircase and, after making sure that the staircase was empty, cornered him. She shook her head to get away the image of the curly-haired man.

 

“What kind of doctor are you?” Winnie asked. “You pop up from nowhere, and say things like _wiped from her mind_ and _overloaded with information._ ”

 

“Dr. Roman, listen, I –” Smith stopped and grabbed Winnie's right wrist. She held her old pocketwatch in her hand; Winnie hadn't even realized that she'd taken it out of her pocket. “What –”

 

Winnie yanked her wrist out of Smith's hand and shoved her pocketwatch into the pocket of her lab coat.

 

“You have a pocketwatch.”

 

Winnie mentally rolled her eyes. “Yes, I have a bloody pocketwatch. That's not the point, what kind of doctor are you?”

 

“Is it broken?”

 

“What?” Winnie huffed and crossed her arms.

 

“Your pocketwatch, _is it broken?_ ” Smith grasped Winnie's shoulders and stared into her eyes. Winnie forcefully removed his hands and took off up the stairs.

 

“What does it matter?! Never mind, meet us in the conference room in ten minutes and report on your examination of Mrs. Temple-Noble.” Winnie stopped before she exited the stairwell. “Get your head together, for god's sake!” She slammed the door on her way out.

 

Winnie paged Gray and Davidson and headed for the conference room. On her way there, she tried to rid herself of the voices in her head. A deep, man's voice and a lighter, woman's voice.

 

 _You have absolutely no sense of responsibility whatsoever!_ said the woman.

 

 _What?_ said the man

 

 _You're capricious,_ the woman's voice continued, _arrogant, self-opinionated, irrational, and you don't even know where we're going!_

 

 _Exactly!_ the man replied.

 

Winnie ducked into a bathroom, carefully placed her glasses in the pocket without her pocketwatch, and splashed cold water on her face. She leaned on the counter with her fingers spread widely and looked at herself in the mirror. She was tired; there were bags under her eyes.

 

Winnie pushed her glasses back onto her face and stared down at her hands. They were just barely shaking. She clenched them into fists, angry at herself for wearing down, and rushed to the conference room.

 

* * *

 

 

Winnie couldn't focus while Smith gave his brief “report” on Mrs. Temple-Noble's condition. She played with her pocketwatch and its broken clasp, and was thankful for the beeping of her pager that metaphorically brought her brain back into her skull.

 

Winnie, Davidson, and Gray jumped out of their chairs and ran down the halls before Smith had the chance to ask about it, but he and his assistant followed close behind.

 

Mrs. Temple-Noble convulsed violently, and the bed clanged with her. Her husband tried to hold her down, but it was no use. The doctors took over. Gray actually issued the orders, but everyone managed to work in harmony before the words were out of her mouth.

 

As Mrs. Temple-Noble calmed, Winnie noticed a gold dust floating from her mouth. It disappeared soon after, but she was sure that Smith also noticed it. He and Clara exchanged a look with each other, then with Mr. Mott.

 

 _They know something that I don't,_ Winnie thought.

 

Davidson and Gray took Mrs. Temple-Noble for another scan. Mr. Mott went to call Sylvia, and Mr. Temple took their daughter, little Evy, down to the canteen for some chips. Smith and Clara attempted to sneak off, but were noticed by Winnie, who promptly followed them. They hurried through the halls; it was difficult for Winnie to keep up with them at a pace where she would not be noticed. Smith and Clara ducked through a door marked _Restricted_. When Winnie went through the door, she was faced with a large, old fashioned police box. She circled it, but there was no sign of Smith or Clara. Winnie put her palms onto the police box. She felt a jolt of … something, electricity?, shoot through her body and pulled her hands back.

 

 _Time And Relative Dimensions In Space,_ Winnie heard from nowhere. She shook her head, wiped her hands on her trousers, and opened the police box doors to check inside.

 

She faced a dark, circular room, glowing blue from a cylinder in the center. Smith and Clara were side by side at the console surrounding the cylinder. Smith was pushing buttons and flicking switches, keeping his eyes on a screen the whole time. Clara would point to something on the screen every few seconds.

 

Clara asked why the Doctor couldn't fix Mrs. Temple-Noble now, but Winnie was distracted by the fact that the room surrounding her shouldn't have been there.

 

Winnie whimpered. The voices in her head where overlapping, getting louder. Clara looked over at her. She hit the Doctor lightly to get his attention.

 

“Dr. Roman,” he said, walking over to her.

 

Winnie shook her head. She couldn't make out what the voices were saying, but they were the same ones that had been in her head earlier. She groaned and put her hands over her ears, bending over slightly.

 

“Winnie,” Smith whispered. He put a hand on her shoulder.

 

Winnie ran out the doors, through the hospital halls, simply _away_. She only stopped when she realized she was on the roof of the hospital. She took lungfuls of fresh, cool air, and discarded her lab coat. Winnie sat cross-legged on the concrete of the roof. She put her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands.

 

After a few minutes, Winnie heard the door to the roof open, then shut. Footsteps came towards her. She felt a hand on her shoulder.

 

“Winnie,” said Smith, in a voice which was not quite a whisper. Winnie jumped up.

 

“No,” she said angrily, pointing a finger at him. “This is nonsense. Who are you?”

 

“My name is the Doctor,” Smith replied.

 

“No!” Winnie shouted. “Bloody hell, tell me your real name!”

 

“The Doctor. Winnie –”

 

“I'm so bloody tired of your avoidances and lies,” Winnie lowered her voice. She put her lab coat back on. “I have yet to see you use any actual medical training. You're not even a proper doctor, are you? You say things like _wiped from her mind_ and _overloaded with information_ , and it doesn't make any sense!” Winnie let out a short, rough scream. “And what was that bloody light thing that you pointed at my patient? Did it harm her?”

 

“No, no, of course not,” Smith assured her. “It's a scanner, look,” he took it from the pocket of his tweed coat and held it out to her. Winnie snatched it from his hand and looked it over.

 

 _Bloody nonsense,_ she thought. It looked like nothing she'd ever seen. Winnie tossed it back to him and walked towards the door which lead back into the hospital.

 

“I'm going home,” she said as she walked. “If the others ask, tell them I've got a migraine and I'll be back early tomorrow.” Winnie opened the door and turned to look at Smith. “I don't want to see you again. Take your assistant and leave this hospital.” Winnie slammed the door behind her, not realizing that her pocketwatch had fallen out of her lab coat and now laid on the concrete of the roof. Smith picked it up and pocketed it.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you'd like to know, facecasts for Winnie and Hannah are Ingrid Michaelson and Skyler Wexler, respectively.


	3. The Pocketwatch

“Mum!” Hannah ran to hug her mum. Hannah's babysitter, Elsie, a sixteen-year-old from two floors down, stood to greet Winnie.

“Dr. Roman, you're home early,” Elsie noted with a smile. “Finish the case?”

“I just buggered off, really,” Winnie replied. Elsie laughed. Winnie paid her for the day and sent her off.

Winnie ordered a pizza and then went to change into more comfortable clothes while Hannah picked out a movie. When Winnie returned, she wasn't at all surprised to see the opening scene of _Iron Man 2_ playing.

“Again?” she asked. “Why do you love this movie so much?”

“Because it's got the Black Widow and Tony _finally_ kisses Pepper.”

“I suppose those are good reasons,” Winnie nodded once and sat beside her daughter.

They watched the movie in silence until the pizza arrived, then they devoured half of the pepperoni pizza. When Tony Stark started fighting Ivan Vankov on the racetrack, they finally spoke.

“Why are you home early?” Hannah asked.

“It wasn't that early it's –”

“You got home at six, Mum. That's really early for you.”

“It is, isn't it?”

Hannah nodded.

“I'm sorry I'm always home so late.”

“It's okay. But don't change the subject. _Why_ were you home early?”

“Do you want the short version or –”

“The long version,” Hannah interrupted.

“There's a man,” Winnie began, “who's been working with us on the case I told you about, the coma patient. He's _impossible._ He appeared out of nowhere with this girl Clara, his assistant. Neither of them seem to have proper medical training. He freaks me out. I left because I couldn't deal with him anymore today. He just makes me so … angry.”

Hannah smiled. “You don't get angry, Mum. I've never seen you angry, except for that time Sarah broke my wrist on purpose. You were scary angry then.”

“I was angry today. He's just so frustrating.” Winnie shook her head and ran a hand through her hair.

“Maybe he's an alien,” Hannah joked.

Winnie laughed. “He's certainly strange enough.”

Hannah turned back to the movie.

* * *

 

Just as the Black Widow began to beat up countless guards (which was, in Winnie's mind, the best scene of the movie), someone knocked on the door. Winnie declined Hannah's offer to pause the movie and rose to answer the door. When she opened it, Smith stood before her. Her eyes widened. She slammed the door and pressed her back to it.

“Hannah, go to your room,” she called.

“But Mum,” Hannah dragged _mum_ out for three seconds.

“Now,” Winnie replied forcefully. Hannah's eyes widened as she got the message. She quietly ran to her room and shut the door behind her.

Winnie reopened the door.

“Winnie,” Smith smiled slightly. Winnie frowned.

“What do you want?” Winnie asked. “And how did you find out where I lived?”

“Your pocketwatch fell out on the roof,” Smith informed her. “I was just returning it.” He held it out to her.

Winnie took it quickly and shoved it into the left pocket of her jeans.

“May I come in?” asked Smith. His eyes were wide, and he was still smiling ever so slightly.

Winnie started to say “no,” but paused. She looked, _really looked_ , at Smith. She nodded and stepped back to let him in. Smith looked around with a wider smile, stopping by a few pictures of Winnie and Hannah. Winnie led him to the dining table (a round table with four, equally spaced chairs) in the kitchen; they sat opposite each other, silent for a moment. Winnie got up and started the tea kettle. A few minutes later, Winnie sat back down and slid the tea (in a mug with Einstein's face on it) over to Smith. He took a sip and got up for more sugar. By the time he sat back down, Winnie was staring at her pocketwatch as she turned it over in her hands.

“Have you ever opened it?” Smith asked. Winnie looked up.

“What?” she snapped.

“Your pocketwatch. Have you ever opened it?”

“The clasp's broken.”

“Is it?”

“I should know, as it's my pocketwatch,” Winnie replied, irritated.

“Look again.”

Winnie rolled her eyes and looked down at the watch. The clasp was in mint condition. “You had it fixed?”

“It was never broken, Winnie,” Smith said quietly.

“Yes, it was, I remember it being broken. It had always been broken.”

“Perception filter,” said Smith. “It made you _think_ it was broken.”

Winnie huffed. “You know, I was starting to maybe not find you annoying, and then you go on with that nonsense again!” She downed the rest of her tea and put the mug in the sink.

“I can prove it,” Smith jumped up and pulled the _thing_ from his coat's inside pocket. He took the pocketwatch from Winnie and pointed the end with the green light at it. Suddenly, Winnie couldn't focus on the clasp, so she decided that it was broken. Smith pointed the green light at it again, and it wasn't broken anymore. Winnie dropped the pocketwatch onto the table and backed away from Smith.

“What the hell?” Winnie whispered.

Smith held the thing up. “Sonic screwdriver,” he said.

Winnie shook her head in anger. Smith sat down again. Against what her head told her, Winnie sat as well and put the pocketwatch in front of her.

“What do those markings mean?” asked Smith, tapping the watch's face.

“They're nothing,” Winnie replied. “They're just circles and lines.”

“Where did you grow up?”

“Here. London.”

“Where, specifically?”

“I was in the foster system, I never had a home.”

“How did you become a doctor, then?”

“I was smart, I got scholarships.”

“Where did you go to school?”

“Oxford.”

“What classes did you take? What were your favourite classes?”

“Why all the questions?” Winnie asked. “What's the point?"

“Do you keep a stethoscope here?”

“Yes.”

“Get it.”

Winnie, again unsure of why she followed his orders, got her spare stethoscope from her bedside table. She sat across from Smith again and handed it to him.

“No, put it on,” he said. “I'm going to prove something to you.”

Winnie did so and held up the end, staring at Smith with a questioning look on her face. Smith took off his tweed jacket and let his suspenders fall, then took Winnie's hand and guided it to the left side of his chest. Winnie heard a strong, steady heartbeat.

“So?”

Smith moved Winnie's hand to the right. Another strong, steady heartbeat, obviously not just an echo.

Winnie threw the stethoscope to the ground and stood. “I don't know how you've managed that trick, but get out of my house,” she ordered.

“Two hearts,” said Smith. “My race is called the Time Lords. I'm from the planet Gallifrey.” He pulled his suspenders back on.

“Gallifrey,” Winnie whispered.

“Yes, you know them!” Smith smiled.

“No, I don't, it just … sounds familiar.” Winnie sat down again and crossed her arms. After a moment of silence, she said, “Say that I believe you. Why are you telling me this?”

“When a Time Lord wants to hide without a chance of being found,” Smith explained, “they can lock their consciousness away in a pocketwatch,” he tapped Winnie's pocketwatch, “and become human with fake memories. Safest thing, really, because the Earth's just big enough to make finding one person almost impossible!” He paused. “Unless you just … happen upon them.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Mum, you really are thick for a doctor, aren't you?” Hannah said from the doorway. Winnie didn't know how she hadn't been able to tell that Hannah had been hiding just outside the kitchen, listening to their every word. Hannah walked up to Smith.

“Hi, I'm Hannah,” she held out her hand. Smith shook it gently.

“Hello. I'm the Doctor.”

“Dr. Smith,” Winnie clarified.

“Hello Doctor,” Hannah replied, not listening. She beamed at Smith.

“Hannah, come here,” Winnie reached for her daughter. “Hannah!”

Hannah finally listened and jumped up to sit on Winnie's lap.

“Hannah, this is the colleague who I was telling you about,” said Winnie. “I told you to go to your room, you know, and now you're in the kitchen.”

“You didn't tell me to _stay_ in my room,” Hannah pointed out. Smith laughed; Winnie glared at him.

“Go back to your room _and stay there._ ”

Hannah sighed and jumped down from her mum's lap. “Nice to meet you, Doctor,” she said to Smith.

“And you, Hannah,” Smith replied.

Hannah turned back to Winnie. “Listen to what he's saying. You can be really stubborn sometimes, Mum. You just need to listen.” Hannah kissed Winnie's cheek and retreated into her room, leaving Winnie to mull over what her daughter had told her.

“Sweet girl,” Smith remarked.

Winnie made a  _hmm_ noise. “What were you attempting to say?” she asked. “Before Hannah came in, why were you telling me all of that?”

Smith picked up the pocketwatch and ran his thumb over the cover. Winnie understood.

“What? No.” She let out a quick, sharp breath. “You're suggesting that I'm not human? That I'm not real?”

“Of _course_ you're real,” Smith assured her. “It's –”

“It's my memories that aren't real. But my memories are me,” she jammed her fingers into her temples repeatedly and angrily, until a headache began to form. “I'm not going to let some unknown alien take over my body. I have a life, a job, a _daughter._ I'm not leaving Hannah alone.”

That silenced Smith.

“How do I know that whoever's in the pocketwatch will take care of Hannah? How did I know that they won't just kill her or leave her? Smith, she was in the foster system; I got her out. I won't let her go back to that.”

“I could check,” Smith offered. “I could check who's in the pocketwatch.”

“I'm not going to do it. Even if they're the nicest person to ever exist, that pocketwatch stays shut tight.” Winnie pulled Smith up by his collar, grabbed his jacket, and pushed him toward the door. “Now, get out of my house.” She threw his jacket at him.

“Winnie,” Smith pleaded.

Winnie tossed the pocketwatch to him. “Do whatever checks you want on the bloody thing. I don't want to see you ever again.” Winnie slammed the door against Smith's protests. She locked the door, then leaned on it and let out a long breath. After a few minutes, she made her way to Hannah's room. Winnie knocked, waited for Hannah's permission to enter, and then opened the door.

“Mum, what were you yelling about?” Hannah asked. Winnie sat beside her on her bed.

“Dr. Smith made me very angry, and I let me temper show. I didn't mean for you to hear, darling, I'm sorry.”

Hannah shrugged. “He seems okay.”

Winnie didn't reply to that. She kissed her daughter's forehead and turned out her lamp. “Sweet dreams, darling.”

“G'night, Mum."


	4. Goodbye

Winnie decided to spend the night looking over her copies of Mrs. Temple-Noble's medical files, but her plans detoured when she heard a quick knock at the door just after midnight. She looked away from the files and went to the door. No one was there, but her pocketwatch laid on the ground with a sticky note on it. In messy but legible handwriting, three sentences were written.

_"Her name is Romana._

_She's a friend of mine._

_A very good woman."_

A phone number was written below that. It looked like it was from a mobile. Winnie scoffed at Smith (if that was even his real name, she realized), but picked up her pocketwatch nonetheless. She crumbled the sticky note and stuck it in the back pocket of her jeans.

Winnie gathered up Mrs. Temple-Noble's files from the kitchen table and moved into the living room, laying the files out across the coffee table. She set her pocketwatch at the center of the table, then pulled the note from Smith and threw it beside her pocketwatch. Winnie leaned back into the couch, cradling her sixth (or maybe seventh?) cup of tea for the night, and sighed deeply. Many  _if_ s ran through her head.

If she had asked to be taken off the case when it first came, as she had just finished a rather stressful one; if she hadn't gone peeking into Smith; if she had refused Smith's help altogether; if she had taken the time off that she had been offered just before Mrs. Temple-Noble's case arrived. She and Hannah could be in a cottage by the sea, away from everything that bothered Winnie.

Winnie put her cup of tea down, took off her glasses, and picked up the pocketwatch. The clasp was no longer broken; Winnie could just peek inside…

A brilliant, gold light flew out, like the one which had escaped Mrs. Temple-Noble's mouth when she convulsed. Voices, so many voices, but two overall. So familiar, yet so distant.

Winnie cried out and snapped the pocketwatch shut again. She hurled it across the room; it hit the wall, just beside the tel evision , with a bang and bounced to the floor, hitting the wood with a  _clunk_ . Smith, the Doctor, he told the truth, everything he said was true.

Winnie pressed her hands over her mouth, attempting to muffle her sobs.

“Mum?” Hannah's footsteps grew closer, until they stopped; Winnie felt a weight to the left and knew that her daughter had sat down beside her. “Mum? Mummy, you're scaring me. Mummy?” Hannah's arms wrapped around Winnie's waist. Hannah leaned against her mother and hugged her tightly. Winnie removed her hands from her mouth and clung to her daughter, sobbing quietly but violently.

Hannah continued to ask what was wrong, but Winnie simply shook her head. She tried to speak, to tell Hannah not to worry, not to be scared, but Winnie couldn't make her mouth move correctly. All the came out was a soft, strangled sound, which seemed to scare Hannah more. Winnie stayed silent after that, and continued sobbing into her daughter's shirt.

After five minutes, Hannah wiggled out of Winnie's arms, pushed her mother into a horizontal position on the couch, and laid a blanket over her. Her cries continued for about a minute more; then she fell asleep.

Hannah turned and immediately saw the crumbled note. She unwrapped it, read it, found the landline phone, and dialed the number.

“ _Hello?”_ a man's voice answered.

“Are you the man who was here earlier?” Hannah asked. “Are you the Doctor?”

“ _Hannah? Yes, I'm the Doctor. Is your mum there?”_

“Mum's really upset. I'm scared. She screamed and cried, and now she's asleep.”

“ _Hannah, I'm on my way.”_

Hannah heard some scuffling as the phone was handed to someone else, and the Doctor told that someone else to keep Hannah talking.

“ _Hello?”_ a higher, more feminine-sounding voice said.

“Hi.”

“ _I'm Clara. Your name's Hannah?”_

“Yeah. Are you a friend of the Doctor?”

“ _I am. Hannah, hold on, we're almost there. Don't hang up.”_

Hannah heard a loud, whooshing sound. A large, blue box phased in and out in the kitchen, before becoming solid. The Doctor and a woman, Hannah assumed that she was Clara, stepped out. Hannah hung up the phone and put it down. The Doctor rushed over to Winnie, while Clara got down to Hannah's height in front of her.

“Are you alright, dear?” asked Clara. The Doctor was checking over Winnie, like Hannah had seen doctors do in television shows.

“She's still human, she's just asleep,” the Doctor said to Clara.

“Mum's not human, is she?” Hannah asked.

“Of course, she's –” Clara began, but the Doctor interrupted her. “No, she's not.” Clara stood, elbowed the Doctor and glared at him.

“Is my mummy gonna die?” Hannah directed this question specifically at the Doctor. The Doctor got onto his knees in front of Hannah and took her hands.

“No, of course not. Your mum's going to be just fine.” The Doctor tapped Hannah's nose; she smiled.

The Doctor stood and turned to Clara. “There's some ice cream in the TARDIS's kitchen, and I think Hannah could do with a great deal of ice cream.”

Clara held out her hand, which Hannah took, and led Hannah into the TARDIS.

After the door was shut and the Doctor was sure that Hannah and the Clara were deep into the TARDIS, he turned back to Winnie. He pulled a chair from the kitchen table and placed it by the coffee table, so he could watch over Winnie. The Doctor picked the pocketwatch off the floor and sat down.

 

* * *

 

Winnie woke up just before two in the morning.

“Hnah,” she mumbled. The Doctor knelt on the floor so that he could be in her line of sight when she opened her eyes.

“Hannah's fine,” said the Doctor. “Clara's watching over her.”

Winnie sat up. After she had rubbed her eyes red, she put her head into her hands. “I think I scared Hannah. Oh god, my head.”

“You opened it partially, didn't you?”

Winnie nodded.

“You've got a portion of Romana in your head,” the Doctor informed her, “but you're still human. Romana and Winnie are fighting a war in your mind.”

Winnie nodded her acknowledgment.

“You need to open the pocketwatch completely and let Romana out.”

“Where's Hannah?” Winnie looked up. She continued without waiting for a reply. “Get Hannah.”

The Doctor walked out of Winnie's line of sight. With the vicious headache pounding her skull, she didn't want to move her head or focus on anything. A few minutes later, Hannah appeared in front of Winnie. Hannah wrapped her cold hands around Winnie's wrists.

“Mummy?”

“Darling, my darling.” Winnie picked Hannah up and put the girl onto her lap. Hannah wrapped her arms around Winnie's neck and rested her head on Winnie's shoulder.

“Everything's going to change, isn't it?” Hannah asked quietly.

Winnie pressed a kiss into Hannah's curls. “Yes. Everything is changing.”

“If you need my permission,” Hannah said the last word slowly, making sure to pronounce it correctly, “you have it.”

Winnie stared at her daughter, wondering how she had raised the girl to understand oh so much.

“To be the lady in the pocketwatch,” Hannah continued. “You can be her. The Doctor and Clara explained everything. They gave me ice cream as well, so they're okay.”

Winnie nodded.

“Darling,” she whispered against her daughter's ear, “adopting you was the best thing I ever did. You are the pride and joy of my life, and you are so wonderful, and I love you so so much.”

Hannah kissed Winnie's cheek and jumped off of her lap. Winnie's headache was increasing.

“Darling, get the Doctor for me,” Winnie pleaded. Hannah nodded. Winnie knew she ran off because of her quick footsteps. The Doctor knelt in front of Winnie and took her hands in his.

“I've stepped out of the frame,” Winnie stated, “and there's no going back.” The Doctor didn't reply.

“I'm ready,” Winnie stood with the Doctor's help. He placed the pocketwatch into her hands and stepped back.

“So I just …” Winnie turned the pocketwatch over in her hands, then sighed. “Right. I guess this is goodbye, Dr. Smith.”

“Or hello,” the Doctor replied with a small, reassuring smile.

Winnie couldn't find the energy in herself to return a smile, so she took a deep breath and opened the pocketwatch.

 


	5. Or Hello

When the golden light had completely gone, the pocketwatch snapped shut and dropped to the floor, and Winnie fell onto her hands and knees. The Doctor rushed to her.

“Winnie?” he asked.

“Doctor, you know just as well as I do that I am no longer Winifred Roman,” the woman replied with a deeper version of what had been Winnie Roman's voice.

The Doctor grinned. “Romana.”

Romana looked at him and smiled. The Doctor helped her to her feet, then pulled her into a bone-crushing hug.

“Mum?” Hannah called from the doorway of the TARDIS.

“Hannah darling,” Romana whispered, more to herself than to anyone in the room. Romana took long strides to Hannah and stopped in front of her.

“You're still my mum, right?” Hannah asked quietly.

Romana nodded and knelt. “Yes, darling, I'm still very much your mum.”

Hannah leapt at her mother, both of them laughing and crying simultaneously. They hugged each other tightly, then Romana put Hannah down.

“You, darling, need to be in bed,” Romana told her daughter. “You've taken good care of me, but now I must take care of you.”

Hannah sighed. “But everything's just getting interesting!”

“And it will still be interesting when you wake up.”

Hannah acquiesced and was led by Romana to her room. As Romana tucked her into bed, Hannah's eyes widened.

“Mum, your case,” she said. “Your impossible case. You've got different stuff in your head; you could solve it!”

_ Why didn't that occur to me before? _ Romana asked herself. She kissed Hannah's nose, thanked her, and rushed back into the lounge.

The Doctor was already looking over Mrs. Temple-Noble's medical files.

“You said something to Winnie about a mind wipe,” Romana said hurriedly, “and Mrs. Temple-Noble's mind being overloaded. Doctor, what did you mean? _What_ did you _do_?”

“Donna was my companion,” the Doctor informed her. “On our last trip, she took the mind of a Time Lord into her head. I had to wipe her mind. She would have died.” He looked down; wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

“And if she sees anything to remind her of your travels, her mind will overload,” Romana finished.

The Doctor nodded.

Bluntly, Romana said, “I think she's been dreaming of you.”

“That's impossible,” said the Doctor. “I _wiped_ her _mind._ ”

“She could remember if her time with you was _so_ important and remarkable that she subconsciously would never want to forget.”

The Doctor considered this for a moment, before reluctantly agreeing.

“I think I could fix her.”

The Doctor's eyes hardened. “Romana, don't make promises you can't keep.”

“Doctor,” Romana tilted her head forward slightly and raised an eyebrow, “I can do it.” She spoke with a conviction that made the Doctor believe her. “But my– Winnie's– oh, bloody hell– the doctors at the hospital can't know about it. It will bring questions that we can't answer.”

“It's the middle of the night,” said Clara. “We could go now and the night shift wouldn't question us, plus the two doctors you work with won't be there.”  
  
“Yes, good,” Romana nodded. “But Clara, could you –”

“I'll stay with Hannah,” Clara replied with a smile. “You two, go save a life.”

Romana and the Doctor practically ran into the TARDIS.

 

* * *

 

In the TARDIS, Romana realized that she was still wearing Winnie Roman's Relax clothes: jeans, a tank top, and no shoes. She sprinted for the wardrobe and very quickly picked out a pair of black slacks, a blue scoop neck top with three quarter sleeves, and black boots with a small heel. She hoped that she wouldn't run into anyone who would notice that she wasn't wearing Winnie's glasses.

The TARDIS landed on the roof, and Romana quickly braided her hair while they walked to Mrs. Temple-Noble's room. The only person in her room, other than Mrs. Temple-Noble herself, was her grandfather, who was sleeping. The Doctor woke him gently.

“Dr. Roman?” Mr. Mott asked. “Do you have a way to wake her up?”

“I think so, Mr. Mott,” Romana gave a quick nod. “However, you must trust me. It will all seem very strange.”

The Doctor started explaining everything in a way that confirmed Romana's (and Winnie's) belief that Mr. Mott knew everything of his granddaughter's travels.

While the Doctor explained, Romana pressed her palms to either side of Mrs. Temple-Noble's head, assessing her mental condition.

“Doctor, she's almost too far gone,” Romana reported. “This comatose state has been the opposite of good for her. All she's doing is dreaming of you. I have to work _now.”_ The Doctor nodded, then closed all of the curtains and shut the door.

Romana positioned her fingertips on Mrs. Temple-Noble's head and spent five seconds preparing herself. She stiffened as she felt  power and space from her brain leaving her own head and going into Mrs. Temple-Noble 's .  Slowly, Mrs. Temple-Noble's mind built up. Romana felt her brainpower evolving, becoming a safe amount of half-human/half-Time Lord. Her mind became stronger and stronger, while Romana's lost some of its strength. In the back of her mind, Romana knew that the Doctor was talking to himself, wondering why he hadn't thought of this,  but she  had to push all  distractions out of her head. When Romana was sure that Mrs. Temple-Noble's mind was strong enough, she removed her hands. The sudden disconnection forced her legs out from under her.

As dark splotches covered her vision, she heard Mrs. Temple-Noble speak softly.

“What have I missed _now?”_

 


	6. A Miracle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is so so late i'm sorry i had so much homework i'm sorry  
> here it is anyway

When Romana's vision returned to her, she found herself laying on a couch in the doctors' lounge. Hannah sat on the floor beside her, playing with her braid, now mussed from sleeping on it. Light shone through the windows; it must have been about nine in the morning.

“Hi, darling,” Romana sat up and regretted it. Her head pounded harshly, trying to rebuild its power. “I'm assuming that Clara brought you.”

“The Doctor came and picked us up and brought us here,” Hannah replied. “You were asleep when I got here.” Romana picked up on the difference in Hannah. She was quieter and wouldn't meet Romana's eyes. Romana patted the cushion at her left, and Hannah sat on it.

“I know this is all a lot to take in. When I first … changed, … everything was exciting and distracting, but now you've had time to think. We can talk about this tonight. Would you like that?”

Hannah nodded. She looked up at Romana and gave her a small smile, then her eyes widened and she jumped up. “Oh, I nearly forgot! The Doctor said to meet him in Donna's room.”

Romana stood and kissed the top of Hannah's head. “I'll return as soon as I'm able, darling.” Hannah smiled, then began pulling at the loose threads on the couch cushions. Romana turned and, choosing to ignore her headache, made her way to Mrs. Temple-Noble and the Doctor, stopping only to grab Winnie's lab coat from her locker.

Romana walked in to the sight of the Doctor sitting beside a completely awake Mrs. Temple-Noble, with Evy Temple-Noble in his lap. Mrs. Temple-Noble was smiling with the Doctor, while Mr. Mott talked with with Mr. Temple and Sylvia Noble. Romana slowly walked over to Mrs. Temple-Noble, and stood on the opposite side of the bed from where the Doctor sat.

“Mrs. Temple-Noble–” Romana began, before she was briefly interrupted by Mrs. Temple-Noble's rasping voice, requesting to be called by her first name.

“Donna,” Romana amended, “my name is Roma–” Romana stopped and corrected herself, “Dr. Winnie Roman. You seem to have made a miraculous recovery,” Romana leaned forward, lowering her voice so that only the Doctor and Donna could hear, “with some old memories, I expect.”

Donna opened her mouth to reply; this time, Romana interrupted.

“No, don't try to speak. Your throat hasn't been used to a while, so it has some adjusting to do.”

The Doctor stood and walked over to Mr. Mott, taking Evy with him.

“Please,” Romana requested, “simply nod or shake your head in reply to my questions.” Romana pulled a pocket notepad and pen out of Winnie's lab coat. “You can write on this to any longer answers.”

Donna nodded.

“You have your memories of your time with the Doctor?” Romana asked quietly, though she knew that the man in question was distracting Donna's family.

Donna nodded, though her eyes showed confusion.

“And you have the Time Lord knowledge as well?”

Nod, and more confusion.

Romana smiled. “That's good. It means I did my job. I'll explain it all when you're fully recovered, but to summarize: your mind has been stretched to accommodate everything. You will most likely have a headache for the next week or two, while your mind adjusts. Don't overexert yourself. Actually, don't do much of anything for about the next two weeks. Read a book, watch some telly, and get as much sleep as you can. Do you understand?”

Nod. Donna reached for the notepad and pen, and wrote _how?_ in big, loopy letters.

“I'm like the Doctor: a Time Lord. I gave a portion of space and power of my brain to you, so that you could retain your memories of the Doctor and also continue living. An addition, fortunate or unfortunate to be decided, is that our minds are linked now. Strong emotions and the stray thought or two will slip through. I can work with you to control it or we can do our best to ignore it. That's your choice.” When Donna began writing her reply, Romana made sure to let her know that she could think about it, but Donna continued writing.

_control. o bviously  . _

_~~spaceman~~  the doctor said he was last of his kind._

“It's complicated,” Romana replied, “but 'I was hidden' is the short explanation.”

Donna's family bustled over then, and Romana stood to give official instructions as to Donna's care.

“Donna can be moved home today, but she must be on bed rest for a week, at least. She will have headaches. After a week, the headaches should subside and she'll be able to move around a bit, but she should keep to bed until she's back to regular strength. She'll be weak for a while and need help. You must patient. Her voice will return soon enough, but I suggest a pad and paper until then.”

“Dr. Roman,” Sylvia Noble spoke, “how _did_ Donna recover so quickly? The other doctors, they said it was hopeless.”

“It was a miracle,” Romana said after a moment. “We're just glad that she did.”

 


	7. A Solution

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM THE WORST AT UPDATING I'M SO SORRY  
> a lot of school stuff happened all at once and i had to research and write a 6 page research paper in like 2 weeks + a lot of other homework and i cannot wait for summer holidays wow where is june
> 
> (i am so sorry)

Donna Temple-Noble was discharged just before noon. Romana gave her (Winnie's?) mobile phone number with the instructions to call if she had questions or if anything seemed wrong, and especially to call when she felt better so that they could meet to talk about their mind link and learn to control it. Dodging questions from Winnie's colleagues, Davidson and Gray, was especially trying, but Romana stayed vague with her explanations and left with the excuse that Hannah needed to be taken home. Which actually was not really an excuse.

After Donna was discharged, Romana took Hannah back to their flat, stopping for pizza along the way ( _surprising_ , Romana thought, _the tastes that continue to please you_ ) , and met the Doctor and Clara at the flat. Clara distracted Hannah, while Romana and the Doctor (who had spent a good ten minutes going through the whole kitchen and was eating fish fingers and _custard_ ) spoke of the future.

“I can't stay here,” Romana said frankly. “Winnie Roman had too many people who knew her. No close friends, no lovers, but everyone at that hospital knew her. There's the added fact that I am not a medical doctor. But I can't take Hannah away from her life. I haven't a clue where my TARDIS is, so I can't just go traveling as you did.”

“Ah,” the Doctor swallowed a mouthful of custard-covered fish fingers, then continued speaking, “I may have a solution.” He pushed a piece of paper over to her. Written in a barely legible scrawl was a name and an address.

_Sarah Jane Smith_

_13 Bannerman Road in Ealing_

“Ah,” Romana replied with a smile, “ _your_ Sarah, if I remember correctly?”

“She lives there,” said the Doctor, “with her daughter. Her son's at university and his friends are headed there soon, so she could use some more company. She fights aliens from her attic.”

“From her attic?” Romana laughed. “I think I'll give this woman a call.”

“I already have.”

Romana continued laughing. She pulled a pepperoni from her pizza slice and threw it at the Doctor. It hit his chest, so he picked it up and ate it. He made a face, then shoveled more custard into his mouth.

“Mum?” Hannah came into the room, pulling Clara behind her. “Can I put Iron Man 2 on? Clara hasn't seen it.”

“ _What?_ ” Romana feigned horror. “Clara Oswald, not seen the masterpiece that is the second Iron Man film? I hardly believe it!” She smiled. “Go ahead, darling. Hold on though. Come here.” She patted her lap, which Hannah sat on. “Darling–” Romana began, but Hannah beat her to it.

“We're leaving.”

“Only if you want to.” Romana, again, was surprised by how smart the girl was.

“Where are we going?”

“Not far. Ealing.”

“Will there be pizza? Can we bring Iron Man? Can Clara and the Doctor come visit?” the questions came rapid-fire.

“Yes, yes, and …”

“Of course,” Clara finished.

“Alright then,” Hannah nodded once. “We're moving to Ealing.”

 


	8. Epilogue

“Hannah!” Romana called from the bottom of the stairs. “Are all of your boxes unpacked?”

“Yes!” Hannah yelled from behind the closed door of her room. “But you should really be asking if all of my boxes are unpacked to your liking.”

Romana laughed. “For that, unpack them however you like. Five points to Ravenclaw.”

“Five? I should have at least fifteen!”

“Don't push it.”

“Bloody alien,” Hannah said in her regular voice, which Romana heard muffled.

“I hear you say _bloody_ once more and you'll be in some bloody trouble, darling!”

“Hello Pot, my name's Kettle!”

Romana cackled.  “Twenty points to Ravenclaw!”

“Thank you!”

Romana was still laughing when she answered the knock at the door. She stopped and smiled. “Miss Sarah Jane Smith, I presume.” Romana held the door open wider; Sarah Jane stepped inside.

“And you must be Miss Noble?” Sarah Jane replied with a smile of her own.

“Please call me Romana. Though I suppose I should begin by telling you that _Noble_ is not technically my last name. Well, it is in the eyes of the British government. My given name is Romanadvoratrelundar.”

Sarah Jane's eyebrows went up her forehead.

“I'll wager the Doctor didn't tell you very much about me,” said Romana, “other than I was a very old friend with a young daughter, both of whom needed a new home.”

“He told me that much,” said Sarah Jane, “but nothing else.”

“Then I apologize for him. He always was an infuriating man.” Romana showed Sarah Jane into the kitchen, where Sarah Jane sat on a high stool by the countertop. Romana put the kettle on.

“If you have time,” Romana continued, “I can offer you tea and a rather interesting story, possibly interrupted by a sarcastic eight year old.”

Sarah Jane smiled. “That sounds entertaining.”

Romana gave a nod. “I think it rather is.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and they all lived happily ever after, the end
> 
> nah, i'm doing a sequel. i'm working on it, slowly, but it's getting done. i probably won't be posting the sequel for a while. also, for once, i won't be finishing the story before i post it. the sequel is gonna be what i like to call a snapshot story. a snapshot story is told in linear order, but you don't necessarily see everything that happens over the whole period of the story; you only get select bits and days over the whole story.
> 
> tl;dr i'm too lazy to write a full sequel so it's basically gonna be a series of one-shots or multi-chapter arcs with a few bridges in between
> 
> i'll try to have the sequel up and running soon. thanks for reading :)


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